Central Florida: The corn harvest was nearly complete in the Northeast by early December, although a pre-Thanksgiving storm and another blast of wet and cold last week created some delays.
The Southeast continued to be relatively dry, although Virginia and western North Carolina saw a reduction in the amount of area classified as abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The Central Florida phosphate market continued to be suppressed by high transportation costs in comparison to the NOLA barge market. As a result, few if any prompt spot sales occurred. However, prices did retreat about $15-$20/st FOB.
The industry was reacting to PotashCorp’s decision to shutter one of two phosphate processing plants at White Springs, Fla., and lay off about 350 employees at that location. The company makes MAP at that facility. In addition, it will cut about 85 workers at its Aurora, N.C., operation, where DAP is the primary product. Lower prices and fewer sales were cited as reasons for the decision.
The Central Florida DAP price range fell to a flat $345/st FOB last week, down from $360-$370/st FOB the previous week. MAP prices continued to bring a premium of about $20/st FOB over DAP in the Central Florida market.
U.S. Gulf: A record corn harvest and the third-largest soybean crop on record will push up earnings for growers this year by more than 15 percent, according to USDA. The corn harvest should reach 13.989 billion bushels, while a 3.258 billion bushel soybean harvest was estimated by USDA.
Harvesting in the Midwest was virtually finished by late last week, although sources said a few pockets remained. Weather was a problem for much of the Midwest last week, as another major storm system swept across the country. In Florida, by contrast, temperatures were well above normal.
Although crop prices have fallen during the past month, they were still quite healthy.
The Thursday snapshot of the futures market showed corn, soybean, and wheat prices on the rise, albeit moderately so. Corn was $4.335/bushel for March 2014, while trading of December 2014 corn contracts clocked in at $4.625/bushel, up slightly from the previous week’s $4.5375/bushel.
The January 2014 price of soybeans was $13.28/bushel, up just slightly from the previous week’s $13.275/bushel. The soybean price for March 2014 was $13.1175/bushel, while soybeans for November 2014 were posted at $11.63/bushel, up from the previous week’s $11.5475/bushel.
Wheat for March 2014 was reported at $6.9525/bushel, with the May 2014 price coming in at $6.95/bushel. The July 2015 price of wheat was $6.9875/bushel, up only a fraction from the previous week’s price of $6.985/bushel.
Water levels on the Mississippi River were on the rise as a result of last week’s storms, and the Blytheville, Ark., dock was expected to reopen by Dec. 20, a source said.
MAP prices edged above DAP last week, perhaps in part because of PotashCorp’s announcement that it will shut down one of its two Florida MAP processing plants. In addition, much of the OCP product that had flooded the market during the past month was no longer available.
The NOLA DAP barge price range last week came in at $325-$340/st FOB based on actual trades, compared to the previous week’s range $325-$330/st FOB. The lowest priced barge of $325/st FOB was resold at $335/st FOB. Offers for January were running about $15/st FOB higher than the current range.
NOLA MAP barges were thinly traded last week, but were generally higher than DAP by $5-$15/st. Offers reportedly ran as high as $360/st FOB, although there were no takers found at that price level.
Eastern Cornbelt: Phosphate pricing was down significantly in the Eastern Cornbelt. The DAP market was quoted as low as $365-$375/st F